


Go for the Gold

by Shoulder_Devil



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Competitive gymnast by day, Extra Treat, Gen, Gymnastics, Training, kind of?, thief by night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shoulder_Devil/pseuds/Shoulder_Devil
Summary: Sasha Rackett is a internationally ranked gymnast (and also master thief) practices her routine before the next big job.





	Go for the Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jothowrote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jothowrote/gifts).



The beam stretched out in front of her, she’d crossed hundreds like it before, maybe thousands, most in worse shape. It was time to have some fun. Sasha dropped into a tumble and came up on her hands. She held the handstand for a beat before twisting one hundred and eighty degrees and walked backwards a few steps. In a deliberate motion she lowered her chest the wood, arching her back and bending her knees until her feet hung in front of her. She heaved herself up and pushed forward (backward?) until her feet made contact with the bar and her momentum carried her to stand facing the direction she’d come. 

This job was going to be one of her hardest yet. It helped that she had an inside man at the Tahan bank but it was still one of the most secure buildings in all of Cairo. Hamid warned her he would deny everything if she got caught. He was skittish after her close call in Paris. Paris was a mess and she has to show for it is a nasty scar on her chest. Not that she would ever show it. Constable Grizzop drik Acht Amsterdam had been tenacious in his pursuit but she hasn't seen him since she left Prague. 

She needs to keep her head down for a while, keep a low profile. So of course she took a job breaking into the Tahan offices. As much as she wants to, the vault could wait, Hamid was after information from his father’s office. All she has to do is leave everything she passes on the way in and on the way out, no matter how valuable, and no one know she was ever there.

Rumors of magical wards and had kept most of her competition from even attempting the job. Sasha had never put much stock in the existence of magic. Maybe a millennia ago when Rome was a thriving metropolis magic might have existed but not anymore. Not in any real quantity. A few squiggly lines across the top of doorways and brass circles here and there weren’t going to keep her from getting paid. But first she had to get there. 

Sasha felt like showing off and bent her knees to launch herself into a back handspring. Her hands stung from the misjudged impact and she knew the landing was going to be bad. Mediating as best she could she shifted her weight to avoid landing on her chest and reopening the wound. The slap of flesh hitting the mat echoed across the empty gymnasium knocking the breath out of her. 

“Where’s your head at, Sasha?” Zolf called from where he was watching her practice. 

“S’rry,” she mumbled, climbing to her feet. “Just thinkin’ about some… plans I have later.” 

His beard twitched in a frown. “Those plans had better be to finish this routine, go back to the hotel, and get a good night’s sleep before the competition tomorrow. You have a real shot at a medal, Sasha.” Zolf’s face softened, “but only if you  _ focus.” _

The two of them made an unlikely pair. Her coach had “discovered” her years ago while walking past a London alley. It had the perfect fire escapes for climbing and Sasha _loved_ climbing. She had just finished swinging up a railing to land with a flip on the second floor when the sudden applause from the dwarf below nearly startled her from her perch.  He told her she had the most natural talent of anyone he’d ever seen. 

Eventually he managed to coax her down and convince her to train as a gymnast. When he caught her openly staring at his peg leg his only response was simply to shrug and say, “those who can’t do, teach.” 

It’s worked out well for Sasha. Training in acrobatics became a way to get above her criminal competition, literally. She’s not sure how she has managed to keep her other job a secret from Zolf for so long. In the time they known each other he's never once asked about where she disappears to from time to time. Even after Paris, when he found her and nursed her back to health. She almost wishes he would ask, then she could get that growing weight off her chest. Too bad neither of them have ever been good with words. They have an understanding though. 

Sasha nodded to Zolf as she remounts the balance beam. She needed to focus.  If tonight's job won't let her pockets with shiny trinkets she still has a chance tomorrow to go for the gold. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I have accidentally done so much world building on this weird thing. I actually really want to write Constable Grizzop on the hunt of international criminal Sasha and Zolf "Oops, I'm an accessory" Smith.


End file.
